Town gives conditional support for new fire station

Brussels-Union-Gardner (BUG) Fire Department Capt. Mark DeKeyser attended Tuesday's Union Town Board meeting wearing his full firefighter turn-out gear. The uniformed fireman sat silently through the two-hour meeting, sitting in the center of the front row of nearly 50 people who were on hand to show support for building a new BUG station in Brussels.(Photo: Peter J. Devlin/For the Door County Advocate)Buy Photo

The Union Town Board voted Tuesday in support of locating a new Brussels-Union-Gardner (BUG) fire station in Brussels, provided the new building includes a Door County Emergency Services ambulance station.

Two of the three town board members – Town Chairman John Bur and Supervisor Bruce Alberts – indicated they opposed the Brussels site, favoring a new station closer to or in Union. However, both said they support locating an ambulance station in that area.

Alberts, who ran for his seat campaigning against the proposed station, seconded the motion from Supervisor Jeff LeGrave to move forward with plans that would include a Brown County Emergency Services ambulance facility on a six-acre site on County C, north of its intersection with Wisconsin 57.

“Recall me. Kick me off (the town board)”, Alberts told meeting attendees. “But, until they (Door County officials) give us a 100-percent guarantee, I don’t want a shovelful of ground turned over,” Alberts said.

Alberts also said he was “turning in” his gear and resigning as a BUG firefighter.

Some in the audience urged him to reconsider, since he is one of the few firefighters in the BUG department available to respond to daytime emergency calls.

The audience of nearly 50 people included BUG Fire Captain Mark DeKeyser, who sat in the front row of seats in his firefighter turn-out gear. DeKeyser sat silently for the entire two-hour meeting, removing his helmet only after the supervisors approved the resolution regarding the Brussels site.

A BUG Fire Board long-range planning committee spent two years developing plans for a new Brussels station and the rebuilding of a station in Gardner, bringing the issue before the voters last November in a referendum on borrowing $4.285 million.

Its defeat triggered discussion among Door County Board members of pulling out of an agreement expiring in May 2016 between the county and the BUG board on co-locating ambulance station at the new Brussels fire station.

A special county study committee on May 5 recommended honoring the county’s commitment. The County Board is set to vote on the recommendation Tuesday.

Bur said Tuesday he remains opposed to the Brussels site.

“I do not support that (Brussels) location for a fire station,” he said, adding that “if and only if the ambulance is at that site,” would he support a fire station there rather than a station closer to waterfront properties representing a large share of the town’s total value.